Armstrong wants 'to be part of solution' to doping: Usada

Lance Armstrong arrives to participate in a training session during the second of the two rest days of the 2010 Tour de France cycling race at the hotel hosting the US cycling team on July 21, 2010, in Pau, South-western France. United States Anti-Doping Agency chief Travis Tygart said on Wednesday that Armstrong wants to help clean up cycling, and the agency has extended its deadline for the confessed cheat to cooperate to do so. -- PHOTO: AFP

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) chief Travis Tygart said on Wednesday that Lance Armstrong wants to help clean up cycling, and the agency has extended its deadline for the confessed cheat to cooperate to do so.

"We have been in communication with Mr Armstrong and his representatives and we understand that he does want to be part of the solution and assist in the effort to clean up the sport of cycling," Mr Tygart said in a statement.

"We have agreed to his request for an additional two weeks to work on details to hopefully allow for this to happen."

After Armstrong admitted last month in a televised interview to using banned drugs during all of his record seven Tour de France triumphs, Mr Tygart had given the 41-year-old Texan until Wednesday to "cooperate fully" with anti-doping authorities if he really wanted a chance to reduce his lifetime ban.